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  He chuckles and slaps me on the shoulder, pain once again slicing though my head. “Come on, it’ll be fun. Besides, Mandy will be there.”

  “Mandy?”

  Laughter bursts from his chest. “Yeah, you know...Mandy? The bitch who slept with her tits pressed against you all night.” He flicks his eyes towards the chair I’d just crawled out of.

  My cheeks flush as I look back at the woman curled up in the chair with no shame in her nudity. Thoughts of Emersyn flood my head and I instantly feel remorse for the way I’d slept the night before. No, we hadn’t done anything, but that didn’t matter. This girl Mandy is easy, and I’m quickly learning that easy just isn’t my thing.

  Looking back to Trent, I force an easy smile and chuckle. “Yeah, sure. Let me just make sure my sister doesn’t need anything first.”

  “Your sister? That the hot bitch you walked in here with last night?” The smile falls from my face as I nod, watching for his reaction. “Cool. Whatever, man. Give me your number and I’ll text you the time and place.”

  I watch as he punches my number into his phone, then texts me so I have his. Holding it up, I give a wave as I say goodbye and walk out the door. Just as I near the last step, Trent calls out from above.

  “Oh, and Cyrus?” I turn and look up, caught a little off guard by the wicked grin on his face. “Bring your sister along.”

  My body stops as Trent closes the door between us. Fuck that. Joey isn’t going to know a single thing about last night, and she definitely isn’t going to know anything about Trent.

  -

  Joey

  -

  Checking the clock, I see that it’s almost noon. Cyrus is still not home. When I left him at the party last night, I figured he would stay for a while, see if he could find anything that would help us out from people there, and come home. He should’ve only been gone a few hours tops, not the whole fucking night. I’ve been calling and reaching out, but he’s not answering me. Where the hell is he? Did something happen to him?

  Cyrus, where are you? I try to reach out to him again.

  Minutes pass with no answer, but that could mean anything. He could be too far away, so I try his cell, but still get nothing. I swear, if I go out and find him and he’s still at that fucking frat house, I’m going to kick his ass. Well, first I’ll see what he found out, then I’m going to kick his ass.

  I’m putting on my shoes, just as I hear the front door open, slowly. I stop and cross my arms over my chest, waiting to see him walk through the door. I’m far enough away and hidden from view that he won’t see me until I want him to. Deep down, I know it’s Cyrus, but if it’s not, they’ll be fucking sorry they chose to fuck with me today. I can be brutal on a good day, but catch me on a bad one, you better hope I have a sane thought left in my mind, because if not, you’re fucked.

  I watch as Cyrus tries to sneak into the house. He must be out of his fucking mind if he thinks for one minute that I’m not waiting for him. What is wrong with him? Deciding to watch him a little longer and not make my presence known, I see him shut the door with barely a noise, briefly look around the house, and sigh in relief. Don’t relax just yet, asshole.

  Taking out his phone, I see him tap some buttons and type something before he quietly makes his way to the stairs. Should I follow him, or let him know I’m right here? Wanting to see what he does, I decide to follow him. I’m able to shadow his movements all the way up the stairs and to the door of his room, without being noticed. When he takes his shirt off and starts for his pants, I know it’s time for him to explain what the fuck he was doing.

  “Where were you?” I ask in a level tone, not wanting to give away my anger and concern just yet. I want him to think that nothing is wrong.

  Jumping a foot in the air, he spins around and glares at me. “Jesus Christ, Joey! What the fuck?” he yells.

  “‘What the fuck’ is right. Now answer me. Where were you?”

  I can tell he’s annoyed that I’m questioning him, but I don’t understand why. He’s been gone all night. Doesn’t he get that I woke up worried that he wasn’t here? I called when I got home early in the morning, and after I woke up. He didn’t bother answering either call.

  “You gonna answer me, Cyrus?”

  He sighs. “No, I’m not. You’re not my fucking boss, Joey, so I don’t need to tell you where I was, or what I was doing. But I will tell you something you need to do, and that is back the fuck off so I can get some sleep before heading back out to look for the sick fuck we’re here for.” He narrows his eyes at me. “Then, once I find him and take care of the problem, I can get the fuck outta here so I don’t have to deal with you nagging at me all the fucking time.” With that, he effectively ends the conversation by turning around and getting into his bed with his pants still on. He places one of his pillows over top of his head, then pulls the covers up over it. Yup, conversation over.

  Why is he being so mean? I could try to read his mind to find out what he won’t tell me, but don’t like doing that to him. I’m too tired anyway. He’s home, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

  “Whatever. Wake me up before you leave so we can split up to cover more ground.” I say, but he doesn’t answer me. I guess I wasn’t expecting him to, so I walk out of his room and head towards my own. I need to get in a few more hours of sleep since we have a lot to get done. If we run into a bad situation tonight, I’ll need all my strength. Hopefully, whatever crawled up Cy’s ass, will rot and die while he’s sleeping.

  Waking up, I feel like I haven’t even slept. I tossed and turned until I finally fell into a restless sleep, dreaming of a faceless demon and piles of naked, sodomized bodies of woman lying all around me. When I open my eyes, I see it’s later than I thought. I only wanted to take a quick nap so Cy and I could go out and do some searching tonight.

  Getting out of bed, I quickly dress. When I walk out of my room, I hear how quiet the house is. Cy must still be sleeping, so I go downstairs to make some much needed coffee before heading back up to wake the beast, hoping he’s in a better mood than earlier. But as I walk into his room, it becomes obvious that he’s not sleeping. He’s gone. Seriously? Where would he go? He wouldn’t have left to go hunting without me...would he?

  Running down the stairs, I grab my phone off the kitchen counter and call him, but after a couple of rings, it goes straight to voicemail. He fucking ignored my call, again! I angrily push the ‘End’ button without leaving a voicemail, then proceed to punch out a text message to him in rapid fire.

  Me: Where the fuck are you?

  I wait a few minutes, pacing around the kitchen when I hear the chime that signals an incoming text. I stop and pull up the message.

  Cyrus: Out.

  One word. That’s all he gives me, one fucking word? Oh, hell no!

  Me: Yeah. I gathered that already, Captain Fucking Obvious, but what I want to know is where?

  This is so unlike him. I knew something was off when he came home this morning, but I figured he just had a rough night. I’m sure finding Vicki must have been hard on him, wondering what happened to me, and then on top of that, having to stay behind at the party to look for the guy didn’t sit well with him. But why is he taking it out on me? It doesn’t make sense. Did something else happen at the party he doesn’t want me to know about? Did he find something? But if so, why would he hide it from me? We need to stick together because we’re stronger as a whole, not split up.

  The text alert from my phone brings me out of my thoughts. Looking down at the message, I see red.

  Cyrus: With friends.

  With friends. We just got here yesterday. And even if he did make friends, which I have no problem with, why would he shut me out like this? We’re here to do a job, and I seem to be the only one concerned about it at this point.

  I know that growing up in the convent was hard on him. Hell, I was there too, feeling the same edginess to get out as he did. When we found out we were going to be away from it for more than a cou
ple of days, it was a little daunting, but exhilarating at the same time. We were finally going to get a chance to be around people our own age, maybe even make a few friends. But right now, we need to keep our heads in the game and do what we came here to do. I want a life as much as he does, if not more, but I know my place in this world, and that is standing between the innocent and the evil of the underworld.

  Looking back at my phone, I type out one last text.

  Me: Well, while you’re out with your friends, I’ll be out too, hunting.

  Once it’s sent, I turn off my phone and head upstairs to pull on a pair of black cargo pants, black ribbed tank top, combat boots, then my weapons of choice for the night. I’m in the mood to fight, so I’ll leave my ‘big guns’ at home, but I make sure to grab my favorite knife and my brass knuckles.

  Heading outside, I see that Cyrus took the truck, and since I don’t feel like walking, I’m left with the bike. I just hope it doesn’t draw too much attention to me. Deciding the hell with it, and that I’ll just park it close to where I need to be and walk the rest of the time, I jump on and rev the engine.

  Not really sure where a good place to start my hunt would be, I drive around campus for a while. There are lots of people out, and a few good-sized parties too. After last night, I don’t know if a party would be a good place to start, but I decide it wouldn’t hurt. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to get people to talk about what they may know, if anything. I’ve heard that people love to gossip, so why not use that to my advantage. Everyone would brag about something that could make them the center of attention, wouldn’t they? Like meeting a celebrity? We’ll see. If I luck out with that, I can sweep the campus to look for clues. It’s a long shot, but it’s something that needs to be done.

  Walking the next few blocks to the first party I see, I try my best to blend in with everyone as I walk in the door. Once inside, I see a few guys huddled around a poker table, a few girls sitting on a couch, and what looks like football players tossing the ball around out back. There are bottles of alcohol sitting around, but not a whole lot of activity yet. Maybe hitting up the parties should wait till later when they get into full party mode.

  I leave the house and start walking around. After a while, I notice what looks like a jogging trail off in the distance, so I go to check it out. If anything, it could be a place for me to run. I’ve always hated running on a treadmill, so this could work.

  Just as I’m getting closer, I hear a scream break through the night air. I can tell it’s a female, and it sounds like it’s coming from deep inside the trail. Breaking out into a sprint, I do my best to reach out into the mind of the girl, hoping to see what I’m about to get myself into. Maybe she’s just a late night jogger who got freaked out by an animal, but from the fear in her scream, I highly doubt it. Someone is after her, and I’m going to stop them. I have no idea if it’s the demon I’m after, or even a demon at all, but it doesn’t matter. If they are out to hurt an innocent girl, they are evil, and I will destroy them.

  As I get closer, I start to hear sounds of a struggle, so I pick up my pace to get there faster. I’m glad I do too because as soon as the girl comes into view, I know that I need to work fast. It’s definitely a demon. He’s not even trying to disguise himself like most do. They pose like humans, and only show their true form when they want to. But this one doesn’t even care. His skin is red with black markings on his face and massive body, which signify what his position is in the underworld. This isn’t just some low level demon. I’ve stumbled across a soldier. Fuck!

  “Did you not get the memo? You aren’t welcome here. So why don’t you let the poor girl go, and I’ll let you go to live another day,” I say in a level tone, but with stone-cold authority.

  I haven’t been able to really lay eyes on the girl to get a good look at her, to see if she’s noticeably hurt, but at the sound of my voice, the demon spins around with her in his arms. It’s the girl from the office the other day.

  “This doesn’t concern you, girl. I think it’s best you leave before you find yourself in trouble,” he says, spitting out the words.

  Taking a few steps closer, I say, “Aw, why you gotta be like that? Maybe I like trouble.” I add a mischievous smirk for good measure.

  He doesn’t seem to understand what I’m saying, so I decide to move this along. Taking out my knife, I let the moonlight glint off the blade. “Why don’t you come play with someone your own size?” I know I’m not as tall, or as muscular as him, but I’m still evenly matched to go against him in a fight.

  Pushing the girl roughly to the side, he holds his arms out on either side. “Okay, little girl. Let’s see what you’ve got.”

  Charging towards him, I hit him once with both fists—one in the gut, and one in the face—but don’t move back fast enough. He backhands me hard enough to send me flying into a nearby tree, knocking the wind out of me. I can taste blood in my mouth, but it makes me feel more alive than I have in a long time.

  Smiling with a mouthful of blood, I scoff, “Is that all you got?”

  My smart mouth confuses him because he pauses, which opens him up for a world of hurt. Taking my knife, I slash across his stomach and jump back just in time when he swings at me again, hoping to catch me unaware a second time. Not gonna happen, fucker. You got your one hit in, and that’s all you’re gonna get.

  Our fight drags on for a few moments, and when I look to where the girl was flung away by the demon, I see her sitting there, watching, her eyes wide with fear. Why isn’t she running?

  The demon takes advantage of my momentary pause, and before I know it, I’m pushed up against a tree, held captive in his strong hands. “Looks like the game’s over, girl. Time to end this.” One minute his hands are empty, and the next he’s holding a dagger he’s summoned with his powers. I have no time to react before the dagger is ripping through my side. I feel it pass through layers of skin and muscle, and the pain almost causes me to pass out. But if I did, I know it would be the end of me. I need to fight back, but how am I supposed to do that when he’s holding me prisoner with his damn knife in my gut?

  This is really it. I thought I was ready for this, but I’m going to lose my life before I’ve even had a chance to live it.

  I see someone move out of the corner of my eye. Cyrus. I knew he’d come and not let me down. But when the demon is ripped away from me, I quickly see it’s not my brother, but Merrick.

  The demon stands to face him and before I can run to his aid to save him, Merrick summons a long sword and makes one brutal swing, taking the head from the demon before him. I’m stunned and have no idea what to do. Only demons have the power to summon weapons, or people with demon blood running through their veins.

  Merrick looks to me and sees me staring at him, shocked by what I just witnessed, before he rushes over to the girl the demon was attacking. That shocks me out of my thoughts enough to take action. I will not let him hurt her. But as I take a step towards them, I see him kneel down in front of her and gently run his hands over her, like he’s checking for injuries. “Are you hurt anywhere? He wasn’t able to take your essence, was he?”

  Her essence? That’s what the demon was after? But why this girl? She’s just a human.

  The girl speaks softly, interrupting my thoughts. “N-no. I’m okay. I’m not hurt. She saved me.” Looking over to me, she asks, “You saved me, but how? Who are you? And who are you?” she asks as she turns away from me to look at Merrick.

  She doesn’t know who he is? I thought that with his question, she had to know him, but that doesn’t make any sense either. He’s a demon.

  “I’ll explain everything later, but right now, we need to get you somewhere safe. Can you walk?” Merrick asks the girl.

  She nods her head and stands up. Merrick looks to me, obviously seeing my confusion. “I’m not a danger to her, or you. And I know you have questions, just as I do, but that will have to wait. I need to get Emersyn somewhere safe. Meet me outside her dorms.” H
e doesn’t give me any time to respond before he’s rushing the girl, Emersyn, away from where he just slayed a demon in front of us both like it was nothing. Glancing at the spot where the demon was just slayed, I make sure his body disappears into the earth before looking down to check out my wound. It’s already stopped gushing blood and is starting to heal, but it’s still gonna hurt like a bitch for the next few days.

  Grabbing my knife off the ground, I run after them to get some answers. Why was the demon after Emersyn? Why would he slay it if he is one himself? I need answers so I can figure out what to do, but I also want the answers for myself. Even though I’ve only seen him a few times, knowing he could be evil, I guess I let myself hope that he was normal—good, even. There’s a very good chance that I’ll have to kill him, even though he just saved my life, and that of an innocent.

  Chapter Five

  Cyrus

  -

  The text from Trent comes just as most humans are finishing up their evening meals. Staring at the screen, I haul my ass out of bed and take a moment to clear my sleep-clouded mind, debating on what the fuck I should do. I was a complete dick to Joey earlier, but fuck! I hate it when she gets all bossy like that. Who the fuck does she think she is? I’m a grown man, for fuck’s sake, and I already have a mom, even though she’s dead. Joey needs worry about herself.

  She was right though. We do need to get to work and put an end to this shit before someone else gets hurt. Glancing back down at my phone, I read Trent’s text one more time. I want to go tonight. I want to experience life for once and have some fun. I want to relax and feel normal for the first time ever.

  Screw Joey, I’m going. I won’t be a complete ass, so I’ll just mix a little business in with pleasure. Trent and his friends know a lot of people. Being a part of their group could be the perfect way to fit into this crowd of naïve college kids, and maybe get some real information that we desperately need.

  Decision made, I make a beeline for the shower, doing my best to stay quiet and not wake up the grouch down the hall. Joey’s not going to like this one bit, but when I come home later with some prime intel, she’ll be kissing my ass.